Rosary



July 18, 1961 A. v. PERREIRA ROSARY Filed March 8, 1960 INVENTOR.ALvAR/NE VALENTINE PIERRE/RA B 9 bowa M14 ATTORNEY United States PatentO 2,992,495 I ROSARY Alvanne Valentine Perreira, 26165 Regal Ave,

Hayward, Calif. Filed Mar. 8, 1960, Ser. No. 13,590 2 Claims. (01.35-23) This invention relates to an improved rosary.

In general, a rosary is a string of beads formed into a loop. The beadsare arranged in groups of ten (decade) and the groups are separated by alone bead. The beads are usually of the same size and configuration andall the beads in the decade are a uniform distance apart with the lonebead spaced a greater distance from the end bead in the decade than theend head in the decade is spaced from the next bead in the decade. ARoman Catholics rosary has five or fifteen decades. Each bead isemblematic of a prayer and the prayers are emblematic of a religiousevent. Therefore, when someone prays the rosary, he touches each bead inturn and says the right prayer for the particular bead he touches, thusensuring to himself that he has said his rosary correctly. But as onegets older, his sense of touch diminishes and he may not readily feelthe beads, much less be able to detect the number of beads that slippedthrough his fingers and consequently he will not say the required numberof prayers. Then, to ensure himself that the rosary was said correctly,he will repeat the rosary. This repetitious act may seem trivial to anoutsider but the person saying the rosary does not have peace of mindbecause everyone desires to practice his religion correctly. In anothercase a young mother, during the process of praying her rosary, may berequired to set aside the rosary and take care of the wants of a smallchild. Then the young mother would be required to start the rosary allover as she cannot remember where she was interrupted.

It is an object of this invention to provide a rosary with a suitableplace-marker.

It is another object of this invention to provide a rosary with a markerwhereby a person can clearly feel the beads snapping through the marker.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide an improvedrosary.

In terms of broad inclusion, a marker is applied to the rosary wherebythe beads pass through an opening therethrough. The opening is slightlysmaller than the overall dimension of the beads and, since the markerhas some resilience, the beads can squeeze therethrough, providing adefinite snapping motion to: the beads as they slip through the marker.

The invention possesses other objects and features of advantage, some ofwhich with the foregoing, will be set forth in the following descriptionof the preferred embodiment of the invention. One must understand thatthe invention is not limited only to the disclosed embodiment butincludes other variant embodiments thereof within the scope of theclaims.

Referring to the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a view of the improved rosary as it is held in the hands forprayer.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged view of the marker and the beads in the rosary.

FIGURE 3 is a view of another embodiment of the marker.

Referring to the drawings in greater detail, there is shown a right handand a left hand 12. The hands are holding a rosary 14 which includes across 16 attached by a short string of beads 18 to a medal 20, and aloop of beads 22. The loop of beads 22 passes through an opening in amarker 24 which is held between the thumb 26 and forefinger 28 of theleft hand 12. The marker 24 should be several times as large as thebeads 22 as shown so that an elderly person, as heretofore explained,can readily grasp andfeel the marker 24.

In FIGURE 2 an enlarged view of the marker 24 and a portion of thestring of beads are shown. The string of beads 22 passes through theopening in the marker 24, which opening is shown in the form of acylindrical aperture 30. The marker 24 is annular with the aperture 30concentric therein but the opening in the marker may have otherconfiguration as will be explained hereinafter. The width of the marker24 is such that a bead 34 is just entering the aperture 30 as theprevious head 36 is exiting. Of course, when the marker 24 is betweenthe last bead in the decade and the lone bead, there will be more motionbetween the beads and the marker than there is when the marker isbetween two beads which are within the decade. There may not be anymotion between the marker and the heads when the marker is between thebeads of the decade, but I prefer some motion because the marker willhave more snap and feel as the beads pass through. The aperture 30 musthave a slightly smaller diameter than the outside diameter of the beads,or if the beads are not smooth, the aperture 30 must have a diameterwhich is slightly less than the overall dimension of the beads whenmeasured perpendicular to the direction of the length of the string ofbeads. The marker 24 can be made of any resilient material that willyield under the pressure of a bead as it is forced through the aperture30. Of course, for a given bead size, if the marker 24 is made of amaterial that has the resilience of cast iron, the aperture 30 must beslightly larger than when the marker 24 is made of a material that hasthe resilience of rubber. I have made the marker 24 out of polyethylenebecause the resilience is relatively large, and polyethylene provides adefinite amount of lubrication between it and a bead. The marker 24 canbe made of other materials such as wood, polystyrene, hard rubber, etc.,but the tolerance between the aperture 30 and the beads must becorrected so that the materials in the marker 24 and the beads willyield without breaking or deforming. With some materials an opening 38in the marker 24 as shown in FIGURE 3 may be required. The function ofthe opening 38 is the same as the aperture 30. Opening 38 in thisembodiment has a slot 40 which communicates between the interior of theopening 38 and the exterior of the marker 24. This marker 24 as shown inFIGURE 3 has an added advantage of being able to slip on or off theloop-form string of beads 22, besides having more resilience.

I claim:

1. A rosary and a marker for said rosary, said marker comprising aresilient body having an opening through which the beads in the rosarypass, said opening being slightly smaller than the beads which passtherethrough, and said opening having a length less than the smallestspacing between the center of one head to the center of the next bead,whereby said marker body is movable transversely between and relativelyto adjacent heads, but said opening having a length more than the lengthof spacing between said adjacent beads.

2. The rosary and marker of claim 1 wherein said marker body is made ofa material yieldable under pressure of a bead forced through saidopening and of such resiliency that each contraction of the marker as itpasses from one bead to the next creates an impact throughout said bodyto the fingers of the user.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,937,459 Belfield May 24, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 479,171 Canada Dec. 11,1951

